At a reading and conversation event held at the sprawling JK Randle Centre, in Onikan, Lagos, Canada-based Oyinsan discussed the theme and circumstances surrounding the birth of the book.

A Ladder of Bones is an ambitious fiction which tackles the corrosive effects of slavery and colonisation on Nigeria and Africa in general.

In the book, Oyinsan critically reacts to Ellen Thorp’s older Ladder of Bones, which presents British imperialists as noble missioners and Nigeria’s liberators.

In her review of Oyinsan’s new offering, equally Canada-based Jumoke Verissimo, describes her approach as a masterclass.

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She says in the review read by Perpetual Eziefule:

“Award-winning writer Bunmi Oyinsan delivers a masterclass in storytelling with her latest novel, A Ladder of Bones, plunging readers into a weighty emotional landscape. Since the publication of her first novel, Silhouette (which was also serialized on national television), Oyinsan has consistently demonstrated a formidable ability to craft narratives that deftly balance social criticism, commentary, and compelling fiction. A Ladder of Bones continues this trajectory, brilliantly employing intertextuality to engage deeply with history.

“In A Ladder of Bones, Oyinsan seamlessly blends Yoruba folktales, iconic works like Toni Morrison’s Beloved, and reimagined historical figures (whose cameo appearances add significant depth) to illuminate the contexts of her five pivotal characters: Enilolobo (Eni), Siaka, Melvin, Iona, and Timothy. These individuals, each bearing unique and profound experiences, find their lives intersecting in Halifax, Canada, as they volunteer for an aid mission in a troubled African country. However, their humanitarian effort takes a grim turn when Melvin, a Liberian boy scarred by his parents’ militia-led murder, organises a gang ambush. Despite the volunteers’ peaceful intent, this sudden act of violence plunges them back into familiar patterns of conflict and trauma.”

On her mission in A Ladder of Bones, Oyinsan, who is a former Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Authors, explained, “In her (Thorp’s) version, she presents British colonisation in Nigeria as noble and altruistic.  A lot of us know that that is nowhere near the truth. Of course, unless you are telling Badenoch. So, she presents colonisation as altruistic and the efforts of the missionaries and administrators as to civilise the land said to be devastated by tribal warfare, slave trading and other issues. Her position draws on the popular trope that the British Empire and other European empires did the fantastic work to get Africa developed. Beneath that paternalistic language and this so-called righteous intention lies the real history of brutal conquests that we were never taught in school, of cultural erasure and inter-generational trauma we are still grappling with. So, my novel deliberately signifies on Ellen Thorp’s title where ‘Ladder of Bones’ symbolises the sacrifices of the colonial agents, I reclaim it. I jam it to highlight the human cost of colonisation.”

Other programmes at the reading included the screening and discussion of a dance video by founder of QDance, Qudus Onikeku.

The performance titled ‘Re-Incarnation’ reflects the spirit of the novel vis-a-vis the conversation that had a former editor at ‘The Guardian’, Jahman Anikulapo, as anchor.

Popular performance poet, Akeem Lasisi, also spiced the evening with inspiring verses.

The session attracted many literary minds, including  famous actress Joke Silva, The NEWS Publisher, Kunle Ajibade with his wife, Bunmi; a former Chairman of the Association of Nigerian Authors, Lagos State branch, Kayode Aderinokun;  writer Ndidi Chiazor-Enenmor; as well as A Ladder of Bones husband, Soji Oyinsan, a veteran filmmaker.

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The video is off his new album that goes by the same title.

He says the fresh offering is a celebration of love along other values.

Lasisi says in a statement: “Primarily, ‘Ada, Ada’ is a celebration of a lady called Ada. Because she is the object of attraction, her name is endlessly chanted in the accompaniment song by Edaoto, a fantastic artiste I often work with.

“But as ‘Ada, Ada’  is a celebration of love, it is also a celebration of poetry. I want to continue to present the art in its entertaining and enjoyable form. It is actually about selling the art to more people, so that they can savour its beauty.

“Yet in the process, we try to pass some other messages, which discerning ears and mind will readily grasp – killing multiple birds with the same stone, kind off.”

Lasisi, who is also a seasoned journalist and lecturer/Public Relations Officer at the First Technical School, Ibadan, adds that “it is also a ploy to recreate a Yoruba folk song involving a dog and greedy tortoise. In the tale, the tortoise begs the dog to take it to where it secures food, during a famine. The dog takes the tortoise to heaven – in the sky – where its dead mother now resides but remains benevolent. While returning, however, the tortoise takes more food than it can carry, and thus has to beg the dog to relieve him of some of the baggage. It now sings, ‘Aja, aja o, ran mi leru’ …”

The new video, shot at the First Technical University, Ibadan, stars Teemiesamuels, an Ibadan, Oyo State-based up-and-coming dancer and actress, who gives a good account of herself in the performance.

She is supported by some dancers whose act, as usual, gives Lasisi’s poetry a total experience: poems, music, dance and theatrics.

The production features three short poems, interjected with songs.

Lasisi, who had earlier featured some movie stars in his earlier works – including Yomi Fash-Lanso, Kabirah Kafidipe, Bukola Awoyemi, Okele, Pa James, Ropo Ewebla and Oyin Elebuibon, had released several poetry videos. These include acclaimed ‘Eleleture’, ‘Udeme’ and ‘Asabi Alakara’.

The Ibadan-born poet is the author of award-winning poetry collections that include IREMOJE: Ritual Poetry for Ken Saro-Wiwa and Night of my Flight: The Poetry of a Lady about to Wed.

Both won him the Association of Nigerian Authors/Cadbury Poetry Prize.

The alumnus of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, University of Lagos and Oyo (Osun) State College of Education, Ila Orangun is also an English Language Tutor and publisher of Phenomenal.com.ng.

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Author: Lasisi Olagunju

Pages: 272

Publishers: Noirledge

Reviewer: Akeem Lasisi

Cowries of Blood is a collection of fiery essays on the unprecedentedly threatened security in our dear country, Nigeria. This is in terms of the lethal menaces of herdsmen, banditry and what the author calls Nigeria’s endgame politics. Although most of the dilemmas, events and personalities the book spotlights are domiciled in the North, the book is the strident voice of a concerned Nigerian who deploys talent, skills, professionalism and gut to tell the country’s sore tales exactly as they are. His mission is to tell the North point-blank that, like a wayward favourite wife, it is the problem of itself and that of the national family.

Since the first impression endures well, I cannot wait till the end of this review before acknowledging the very beautiful quality of production of the 272-page publication, especially with the painstakingly cut pages that smell all that is lemon. It is in such a beautiful coat that Olagunju wraps the sordid tales he tells, so that merely looking at the cover, one is confronted with a beauty and a beast, a potentially great country stranded in a festival of untamed cutlasses loose guns, while bathing itself in its children’s blood.

Ironically, Cowries of Blood is simply as good and fundamental as that, as it provokes other vital questions to be asked. It is thus worth recommending on major grounds.

Indeed, it is instructive to note that on the book cover is the map of our otherwise beautiful country dripping with blood at the top North. But because whatever falls from the head flows to the feet, the blood is seen coursing down South, flowing through the hapless channels of the rivers Niger and Benue, which ought to ordinarily be carriers of life and all that makes it pretty. This is how penetrating Olagunju’s perspective is right from the cover of Cowries of Blood, to the extent that the saying that you do not judge a book by its cover does not apply here.

As the author notes in preface, Cowries of Blood is a collection of articles selected from his ‘Monday Lines’ column in ‘Nigerian Tribune’, from among those published between 2012 and 2019. With the introduction written by Ambassador Dosunmu Awolowo and foreword by another shrieking columnist who, unfortunately, recently passed on, Obadiah Mailafia, Cowries of Blood presents 53 articles arranged largely on the basis of thematic connection.

The opening story, ‘Tears, Tears, Tears and Blood’, is symbolically positioned, since many others are so soaked in blood, whether the physical or metaphoric one. It captures the double tragedy of a March 2012, Sunday bomb blast in a Jos Catholic Church. Apart from the direct victims the blast produced, some civilians also paid a huge price as they were shot by soldiers who could not stand their protest (the people’s protest) against the incident. This article has a lethal link with some other ones, including ‘Benue’s ‘Murder in the Cathedral’, where a priest and some church members were killed by terrorists.

The second article titled ‘Fulani Herdsman as a Metaphor’ is also a story of tears, documenting the killing of a senator and rep member by those said to be Fulani herdsmen. The writer elaborately bemoans a situation tenderers of animals have become wasters of men. But what appears to be most instructive is his assertion that the herdsman in the bush is not the real killer but the cow owners who send them out and equip them rather with frustration, hunger, man’s inhumanity to man and Ak 47s.  “Nigerian super rich are the herdsmen,” Olagunju writes in the article on page 21 of the work. Stories of killings, mostly erupting in or from the North, permeate the book, as will be found in ‘Are we not at War?’, detailing the Lafia strike where some 98 people were killed, with 55 being children; as well as in ‘Uniformity of Chaos and Deaths’ (32).

Of course, the Lasisi Olagunju that many know is naturally almost a perfect gentleman. Friendly, humble, humane and very kind. As far as I know, many members of his media constituency who had cause to relate with him or the government he served in bear testimony to the fact that he made himself available to be a blessing to many as well as to the government he served. He refused to be intoxicated by power. Rather, he exploited it to bless mankind in his own humble way. But if you are looking for the same gentleman in the author of Cowries of Blood, you will be terribly disappointed. For the Olagunju who naturally speaks as if he cannot finish eating a wrap of pap, as Yoruba idiomatically say, now assumes the status of the proverbial masquerader who no more fears the foe, the friend and even his in-laws once he is in the mask.

In some of the critical articles, he dissects the national dilemma created by regional suspicion, belligerence and manipulation, as we have in ‘Back to Unongo’s Northern Nigeria’, ‘Amotekun and the North’s Fear’, ‘For Kudirat Abiola’,’The 123 Bikers from Jigawa’  (91),  ‘Ese Oruru: Northern Nigeria needs Help’ as well as ‘The North 2019 Presidential Votes’.

In some others, the writer also unleashes his fangs on some individuals whom, he believes, were or are acting silly.  They include ‘Sheikh Gumi and his Bandits’, ‘General Buratai and his Coup Talk’ (166) and ‘Agboola Gambari’s Burning Grass’ (129). Of course, President Muhammadu Buhari and his government are also accorded heavy knocks in certain areas, especially the ones connecting to security of lives and property. Among such are ‘Buhari: Masquerade that won’t Dance’ (171), ‘Buhari’s Barren Fig Tree’ and ‘The President is Back’.

But it’s not in all the stories that the writer moans. Even in his usual understandable irritation, he is able to identify noble policies, good programmes and impressive ideas. He, for instance, does this in the article, ‘El-Rufai and the Beggars of Kaduna’, where he applauds the governor for ordering them (the beggars) off the streets with some rehabilitation programmes.

In Cowries of Blood, Olagunju is not just an opinion writer. He is simultaneously a teacher, a historian and an analyst. As a result, it is difficult for anyone to fault him on his arguments because they are based on open and interrogated facts. Perhaps because he is convinced about such, he not only chronicles the ills, he also points the accusing finger and judges whoever is involved.

In spite of the gory nature of the stories told in the book, Olagunju’s literary acumen yet flowers through every nook and cranny of it. He blesses it with historical, philosophical, musical (King Sunny Ade and Orlando Owoh echo in the book) and cultural allusions in many areas. He is not shy to deploy Yoruba metaphors and proverbs, either as in the ori inu inner head parables, or in occasional satire as we have in ‘Chibok: Bring Back our Guts’ and ‘The Honest Emir of Muri’. For one, in a manner that does justice to the depth and first class brilliance of the author, Cowries of Blood is a book of quotable quotes on Nigeria’s troubled peace.

I make bold to say that the haste to bare his mind hardly inflicted any communicational error on Cowries of Blood. The vocabulary bank is apt, the grammar is generally right.

I make bold to say that the haste to bare his mind hardly inflicted any communicational error on Cowries of Blood. The vocabulary bank is apt, the grammar is generally right. Well, there will normally be one or two little elements requiring enhancement in subsequent editions – like the use of ‘but’ with ‘although’ on page 19 and using ‘which’ in place of ‘whose’ on 21 –  the fact is that inspiring language use is a theme on its own in Cowries of Blood. If there is any challenge I like to give Dr Olagunju, it is just a challenge, which borders on the need to, in a sustained and pugilist way, take a look at how the fire of real pace-setting progress for which the South-West is famous also appears to be dancing ajoreyin. Perhaps Olagunju should visit some of the public schools with which Awolowo and his associates liberated us to see what they have now become.

Ironically, Cowries of Blood is simply as good and fundamental as that, as it provokes other vital questions to be asked. It is thus worth recommending on major grounds. First, it speaks to Nigeria in a compelling voice. It harbours the power of reawakening. Policy makers need it to chart a new course. Students, activities and individuals who need to encounter issues on the dilemma of leadership and nationhood will gain a lot from it. And for budding or aspiring columnists, Cowries of Blood is a printed school of opinion writing as the writer has established himself in the realm of the very best not only in Nigeria but also the world.

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